In this post we’re going to discuss the power of shifting the focus from one aspect of your personality to another based on who you’re currently working with and what you want to accomplish.

The origin of this charismatic leadership process is in a couple of Ancient Wisdom teachings. In the Toltec teachings the teaching is expressed like this, “The warrior never reveals his true identity!” In shamanism its said, “The shaman wears a thousand faces.”

So what does this mean and how can you use it in leadership with an emphasis on developing rapport? You’re a multi-faceted human being that has many different aspects of personality. Some aspects of your personality resonate more with one person than they do with another. You can mix and match the aspects of your personality with people to authentically develop deep rapport with them.

Let me give you an example using a couple of relationships I have with the people in my Inner Circle.

One of the members really resonates with the part of me that’s gregarious and dreams big about possible strategies. He loves to engage with me when I’m in that aspect of my personality. Another member…not so much. He resonates with the part of me that enjoys a good intellectual conversation.

So, to make the most of our time together, and to develop a deep rapport, I use those two different aspects of my personality with those two different individuals. This makes it natural, fun and much easier to create mutually beneficial outcomes. Make sense?

Where this can become even more interesting and powerful is when you first meet someone. By using other rapport techniques such as mimicking body language and tone of voice, you can quickly get a feel for what part of your personality will resonate with each new person you meet.

As you experiment with the different parts of your personality in that initial conversation you pay attention to their body language and facial expressions. This will confirm or deny if you’re correct about the feeling you have about which aspect of your personality will work best. Then you can make adjustments.

This technique is extremely powerful and since you’re only using real aspects of your personality…it’s completely authentic!And, for you sales people it works very well for developing rapport quickly during sales conversations.

How do you use the different aspects of your personality in leading people? In sales?